•  Keep your notes tidy and complete. If you miss a class, get the notes from a friend or ask your teacher what you missed.
•  Organise your notes into different sections e.g. vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, speaking, reading, listening, writing etc. This will make it easier to find the section you need to revise for the exam.
• Look through your notes regularly, not just the day before the exam.
• Use different coloured pens and highlighter pens to help you focus on the most important things you have to learn.
• Make summaries of your notes. Include the most important things in your summaries. Write short summaries on small cards that you can carry around with you and read them on the bus or when you have some free time.
• Make mind maps, visuals and diagrams.
• If you don’t understand something in your notes, ask a classmate or your teacher to explain it to you.

Show Check your understanding: gap fill - notes

- See more at: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/exams/exam-study-tips/notes#sthash.rwy90EmR.dpuf

MULTIPLE CHOICE TASKS

Multiple choice questions can be more difficult than they first appear as often two of the options are quite similar. These tips will help you to do well in multiple choice questions. 

Try to ...

Read all the options carefully. If possible, use what you know already to work out any options that are not possible. 

 

• Eliminate options you are certain are wrong.

• Find the part of the text with the information. Find key words in the text that tell you which option is correct.

• Look out for words such as always, never, might, may or could. They can help you decide if an option is correct or not. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  TRUE OR FALSE TASKS
  
  
  
  Read the sentences in the exercise carefully. Use what you know to work out if the sentences are true or false before you read the text. Read the text to confirm what you think.  

• • Underline the part of the text that has the information. Find evidence from the text that tells you if the sentence is true or false.
  • Don’t leave a true or false question unanswered. You have a 50% chance of answering correctly.
  • Do you have to correct the false sentences?
  • Sometimes you have to answer true, false or doesn’t say. Doesn’t say options are usually more difficult, but less frequent.

SENTENCE TRANSFORMATION.

In this type of test, you have two sentences. Sentence one is complete. Sentence two is incomplete. You have to complete sentence two so that it means the same as sentence one. For example:

Steven Spielberg directed Jurassic Park.
Jurassic Park _________ Steven Spielberg.
Answer: Jurassic Park was directed by Steven Spielberg.

Here are our tips for doing sentence transformation exercises well:

• Read the instructions carefully.
• Are you given a word to include in sentence two? If so, don’t change this word.
• How many words are you allowed to write to complete sentence two? Sometimes the instructions will tell you that there is a maximum word limit.
• Read sentences one and two slowly and carefully.
• Which part of sentence one is tested in sentence two?
• What grammar do you need to use?
• If you don’t know an answer, guess. You may be right!
• Check your spelling carefully.
• Check your answers carefully when you finish.
• Sentence transformations often test direct and indirect speech, comparative and superlative forms, active and passive forms, quantifiers, conditionals and verb patterns.
  
  
  
  

  READING.

In this type of exam, you have to change the form of a word (in brackets) to complete the sentence. For example:

My dad _____ (work) in a shop.
My sister _____ (not like) swimming.
This song is much _____ (good) than that one.

Read the whole sentence. It is important to understand the whole sentence before you begin.

The word is often a verb. Answer these questions for a verb:

• Does it refer to the present, past or future?
• Do you need a simple or continuous form?
• Do you need an auxiliary verb?
• Do you need to add an ‘s’ to the verb?
• Is it an irregular verb?
• Do you need a passive form? (be + past participle)

Sometimes the word is an adjective. Answer these questions for an adjective:

• Do you need the comparative form?
• Is it a regular or irregular form?
• Do you need the superlative form?
• Is it a regular or irregular form?
• Remember! There is no plural adjective form. e.g. Your shoes are nice. (NOT Your shoes are nices)

Sometimes the word is an adverb. Answer these questions for an adverb.

• What’s the adjective form?
• Do you add ‘ly’ to the adjective? e.g. slow + ly = slowly
• Is it irregular? e.g. fast, hard

Finally, remember these tips to get top marks in this type of test:

• Always check your spelling carefully.

• Check your answers carefully when you finish.  - See more

LINKING WORDS AND PHRASES TO SUM UP YOUR THOUGHTS

Personal opinion :

To my way of thinking, It seems to me that, In my view, It is my firm belief that, From my point of view, I think that, To my mind.

To list advantages and disadvantages:

One advantage of, Another advantage of, A further advantage of, The main advantage of, The greatest diadvantage of, The first disadvantage of.

To list points:

Firstly,To start with, To begin with, First of all, In the first place,Secondly,Afterwards,Then, Next, Thirdly, Finally.

To add more points to the same points:

What is more, Furthermore, Moreover,Besides this, Not to mention the fact that, In addition to this, Apart from this / that, Not only....but also.

To express reality :

It is a fact that, In effect,Actually, Indeed, In practice.

To express limit of knowledge:

To the best of my knowledge,As far as I know.

To make contrasting points:

But, However, Yet, Nevertheless, Though, Although, While.

To conclude:

In conclusion, All in all, To sum up, Therefore I feel that, On balance,Lastly, Finally, To sum up.

Summarasing:

In short, Briefly, To put it briefly.

ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY

THEY SAY HOW OFTEN SOMETHING HAPPENS.

THEY USUALLY COME BEFORE THE MAIN VERBS AND AFTER THE VERB TO BE.

MOST OFTEN - always, frequently, regularly,sometimes.

LEAST OFTEN- occasionally,rarely, never.

Learn the meaning of the following adverbs to use them correctly:

Hardly ever- RARELY OR NEVER.

Normally- REGULARLY

Not very often- RARELY

Now and then- OCCASIONALLY,SOMETIMES

Often- FREQUENTLY

Seldom-RARELY

Usually- REGURARLY

To practise the adverbs finish the following sentences :

1.I normally choose....

2.We occasionally watch...

3.She always wears.....

4.They hardly ever eat....

5.He never goes to ….

6. I usually ask.....

ADVERBS OF DEGREE

THEY USUALLY COME BEFORE AN ADJECTIVE ORADVERB, WHICH DESCRIBES

POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE SITUATIONS.

POSITIVE---- extremely, very, rather, quite, fairly, incredibly, pretty, absolutely.

OK--------- a bit, fairly, quite, slightly.

NEGATIVE---- rather, pretty, very, incredibly, extremely,absolutely.

Exercise to practise adverbs of degree. Give it a try !

1.The new bank manager is -----friendly.

2.He has been getting.......(fairly) good results.

3.We were.....pleased with the room servise at the Hilton.

4.The food was excellent but the bill was.......expensive.-negative

5.The film has good actors but the story is ------boring.

Grammar. Modal verbs . Have to and must.

Grammar. Modal verbs . Have to and must.

What is the difference between ´´have to´´ and ´´must´´?

When do we use each of them ?

A- I have to do something = it is necessary to do it, I am obliged to do it:

• Yo can`t turn right here. You have to turn left.
• I have to wear glasses for reading.
• George can`t come come out with us this evening

He has to work late.

• Last week Tina broke her arm and had to go to hospital.
• I haven`t had to go to the doctor for ages.

We use do/does/did in questions and negative sentences (for the present and past simple):

• What do I have to do to get a new driving licence? (not What have I to do )
• Karend doesn´t have to work Saturdays. (not Karen hasn`t to)
• Why did you have to leave early?

You can use have to with will and might/may:

• If the pain get worse, you`ll have to go to the dorctor.
• I might have to work late tomorrow evening. Or I may have to work ...

(= it`s possible that I will have to )

B- Must is similar to have to:

• It's later than I thaught. I must go. Or I have to go.

You can use must to give your own opinion. (For example, to say what you think is necessary to recommend someone to do something). Have to is also possible:

• I haven`t spoken to Sue for ages. I must phone her. (=I say this is necessary)
• Mark is a really nice person.You must meet him.(=I recommend this)

We use have to (not must) to say what someone is obliged to do.The speaker is not giving his/her own opinion:

• I have to work from 8 to 5 every day ( a fact , not an opinion)
• Jane has to travel a lot for her work.

But must is often used inn written rules and instructions:

• Applications for the job must be received by 18 May.
• (exam instruction) You must write your answers in ink.

You can not use must to talk about the past:

• We had to leave early.

B2: Sentence transformation

Part 4 of the Use of English paper is one of the most difficult tasks in the FCE exam. It's important that you study the grammar sections of our book and, of course, you need to practise a lot. Below are some links to online exercises and information

Introduction and typical questions
Modal verb key word transformations
Phrasal verb key word transformations
Active to passive
Verb patterns
Direct to report speech
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Cooking a stew

In addition, you can find a summary of the rules we've seen in class regarding the use of adverbs modifying comparatives such as slight, by far, etc.

Comparatives and superlatives

Then do this exercise to check your understanding.


Joe-Floe
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/tests/tsindex.htm
The Tiny TEFL Teacher
http://www.tinyteflteacher.co.uk/learning-english/grammar/much-comparatives.html
International House
http://www.ihbristol.com/free-english-exercises/test-esol/esol-kt-cooking-a-stew 
AutoEnglish.org
http://www.autoenglish.org/FCEUse/FCEUsePart4.htm#Training_